H-AGOM-WMcGuire

The following was written by P McClung and published in The Sunday Constitition, July 22, 1984, Lawton OK.

Rose and Weyman McGuire Guerrillas on Mindanao 1942-1944

A Lawton, OK, couple, now living quietly at 1305 Irwin where they tend hundreds of plants in their greenhouse, spent the first years of marriage as guerrillas fighting the Japanese in the Philippines.

Retired Sgt. 1st Class Weyman L. McGuire, 70, and Rose McGuire, 68, spent three years of World War II running and hiding from the Japanese invaders. They scrounged for food, fought malaria, and worked with other guerrillas fighting the Japanese and maintaining radio communication with the Americans in Australia.

Mac has a tattered old pocket-sized notebook In which, during 1943 and 1944, he scrawled dates and details of their ordeal.

It is a strange story. Rose's father was an American soldier in the Spanish-American War at the turn of the century. His name was Clare McMichael, and he came from the state or New York. He married a Filipino girl and lived in the Philippines after that war.

Rose McMichael's mother was a Moro. The Moros are Moslem members of Malay tribes living in the south Philippines. They are known for their aggressiveness, toughness, and tenacity in war. Her father died when Rose was 14. The family had been prosperous but lost everything during the Invasion. Her mother, known far and wide an Old Lady McMichael, was the leader of a guerrilla camp on Mindanao during the war. She obtained food and medicine and gave shelter to other guerrillas.

Weyman McGuire, born in Winnsboro, Texas Oct. 21, 1913, enlisted in the Army in 1935 and retired here in 1967 after more than three decades of service in three wars -- World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He was a second lieutenant in the Medical Administration Corps, stationed with the 19th BG at Clark Field when the Japanese struck.

The troops were evacuated to Bataan before it fell. "They sent us down to Mindanao. It hadn't fallen yet," Mac said. "We were supposed to set up a base for MacArthur to leave from, which we did." McGuire and about 19 other soldiers were sent to an airstrip on the southern coast. "We were supposed to repulse an invasion," he said and laughed. "We were supposed to get planes and guns. We didn't even get a cigarette."

MacArthur evacuated in March. Wainright surrendered April 9, 1942. The next month Corregidor fell, and the southern Philippines fell. The American commanders ordered all their troops to surrender.

McGuire with five of his buddies decided against it. They had heard reports of Japanese treatment of prisoners. "We decided if we were going to die, we might as well die fighting." So he and the others ran and eventually joined native guerrillas. They went from camp to camp and from hiding place to hiding place. Many of their companions who surrendered died before they ever got off Mindanao. Many of the guerrillas died, too.

Mac and Rose refer to their entire guerrilla experience as "running.”

Mac and other Americans rigged up a radio transmitter and receiver, and for weeks tried to contact MacArthur's headquarters. It was about six months after the June, 1942 surrender of American troops when the guerrillas finally got a response.

"Some guy broke in and said 'Who is this?’”

It was also the latter part or 1942 when Chick Parsons, a lieutenant commander in the Navy. was sent by submarine to investigate. The guerrillas subsequently received a good transmitter and finally, in mid 1944, a small group of American reinforcements arrived to establish a weather station to provide information for American long range bombers.

The McGuires war was lonely, one of the guerrillas, Col. W. W. Fertig, later titled a book. "They Fought Alone."

A native treatment of an infected wound on Mac's left knee saved his life. Shortly after the invasion he and other Americans faced hundreds of charging Japanese.

“We set up. a perimeter and we had .30 caliber and .50 caliber machine gun but the Japanese just kept coming at us all night long and we kept mowing them down. Mac said he shot a charging Japanese soldier eight or ten times with a carbine but the soldier kept coming. Mac said he was too scared and shocked to move out of the way, and the Japanese bayonet struck his knee as the enemy soldier fell dead. When the wound became infected, Mac thought “Well that’s it.” But an old native cut a sapling tree and scraped pulp out of it and treated the wound; stopping the infection.

A man called Mr. Dashier, or Old Man Dashier, had a camp in the mountains, and he invited all Americans to stay there. He was a Spanish American War veteran who had chosen to live in the Philippines.

McGuire Joined the Dashier camp, but about once a week he'd have to walk to a place called the ridge to scrounge food. About half-way to the ridge, about a days walk, was the McMichael camp. Mac stopped there frequently, and sometimes stayed all night. Rose and her family had made clothes for the GI’s and had met him before.

The other guerrillas were at least half in love with her, too, but she chose the lanky Texan with curly blond hair even though, she says he told her he wanted to marry her before he said he loved her.

They were barefooted when they were married. Their shoes had worn out long before. They were married Dec 7, 1942, a year after the Japanese attack. Their first child, Rebecca (Mrs. Ronnie Miller of 4509 S.E. Avalon) was born Sep 12 1943. The. Filipino word for evacuation is Buckwheat, and they named her that because they were always moving, eluding the Japanese. They lived in the Bokids, the back country. A second girl child died in the Philippines because of lack of medical care. The McGuires have three living children Becky, the Rev. Weyman McGuire Jr. who is a Methodist minister in Kentucky, and Mary (Mrs. Blake) Kephart, who lives east of Lawton OK. They have nine grandchildren.

During the war both Mac and Rose were sick for months with malaria, as were thousands of others. Mac was sick worse and more often than Rose. Because he was a medic the natives called him Doctor and had faith that he could cure their ills. He spent much of his time trying to control malaria.

"Little kids were dying of malaria. As far as they were concerned, I was a doctor. At first we had no quinine. I could have saved a thousand of lives with quinine. They'd bring their dried up little kids and expect me to do something. He took the bark off the shinkona tree and boiled it in five gallon cans for about 12 hours. Then the natives would line up and he'd make them drink the bitter stuff. It helped. Later, the guerrillas were sent atabrine tablets. Mac said that when he took them it was like getting instant new life.

Entry after entry in Mac's journal begins "Sick again today." Normally he weighed about 200 pounds. He shrank to 97 pounds. He sometimes had to stay in bed for days. Often they thought he would die. But Rose always nursed him backs

"She saved my life," he said.

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Excerpts from Weyman McGuire's Philippines Guerrilla Diary

Running: Excerpts from Weyman McGuire's Philippines guerrilla diary, with entries made from July 1,1943 to June 19. 1944..

The Japs came to Misamis on June 26. 1943.

July 1, 1943 Thursday. In the mountains again not very far. Am wondering if it is far enough. Rose is still below trying to buy supplies.

July 4, 1944 Sunday. Independence Day. It almost makes me laugh to think about it for we are more like hunted beasts than free independent people. We can hear lots of shooting going on. They are having a battle very near here. We cannot tell just where it is. It seems like they are gradually closing in on us and we will probably have to run for it any time. The only thing I am worried about is my darling.

July 8, 1944 Thursday. No rain today. Made a small shack. It is not good. We heard plenty of shooting. I suppose they had a battle someplace very near. Rose moved up today with some of the children.

Aug. 28, 1943 Saturday. Have malaria again and very little quinine. Am wondering what I will do. Rose is also sick with a cold and cough.

Sept.4, 1943 Saturday. Two years ago I sailed from San Francisco for P.I.

Sept. 12. 1943 Sunday. Our baby was born today. It was born at 3 p.m. It is a big baby girl. The midwife spent the night here.

Sept. 21, 1943 Tuesday. The food is very hard to get. I am eating corn rice only, chopped dry corn boiled like rice.

Oct. 19. 1943 Tuesday. Today is Rose's birthday. She is 26 years old. I did not have a present to give her. All I could give her was my love.

Oct. 21, 1943 Thursday. Today is my birthday. I am 30 years old.

Oct. 29, 1943 Friday. Still sick. I did not finish my treatment of quinine. Words in Bisian: English visian; man, la-lake; boy, bata; girl, ba-baye; Where does this trail go? AhHa Kane Dalan Pienodg.

Oct. 31, 1943 Sunday. We arrived home about dark to day. It was very hard traveling because of the mud. It is belly deep to the horses in lots of places.

Nov. 6, 1943 Saturday. Col. Tena left to meet the Aussies.

Nov. 10. I943 Wednesday. Received orders to report to the hospital for duty. I leave tomorrow.

Nov. 14, 1943 Sunday. We arrived at home after dark. The trail is very muddy. It is so bad that you can hardly get over it.

Nov. 25, 1943 Thursday. Thanksgiving Day and I have many things to be thankful for even though I am still sick.

Dec. 7, 1943 Tuesday. One year ago I was married to the best girl in the world.

Dec. 30, 1943 Thursday. Went to work today but there was nothing to do because I do not have any medicine to do anything with.

Dec. 31, 1943 Friday. It is the last day of the year and when I look back over the last year I wonder if I have done the best I could. I hope and pray that the coming year will bring more happiness than the past.

March 3, 1944 Friday. The Americans landed in the Admiralty Islands. MacArthur says the way is open to the Philippines now. I wonder if they will ever land here.

June 1, 1944 Wednesday. I learned that the Allied Forces landed in France. I also planted nine papays plants. We killed our pig and the meal looked like it had some kind of seeds in it so we were afraid to eat it. I sure did hate it, too for we have not had any meat for a long time.

April 15, 1944 Saturday. Went down to Mr. Dashier's to get some coffee... Tried to plan out what we would do if the Japs come up here but I suppose it will be too late to do as we planned. If they do come in we will not know enough in advance and I suppose we will be lucky if we escape with our live....

They did escape. He was repatriated in March 1945. They have lived in Lawton, OK, since late 1949.